Episcopal Leader Plans To Retire

June 09, 1998|By GERALD RENNER; Courant Religion Writer

Episcopal Bishop Clarence N. Coleridge of Connecticut has announced plans to retire by the end of 1999, kicking off a search for his successor.

``My health is good and so is the health of the diocese. I feel the time has come to make the transition to new leadership for the 21st century,'' Coleridge said in a letter to the 184 parishes in the diocese.

Coleridge, 67, an immigrant from Guyana, has been spiritual leader of the 76,000 Episcopalians in Connecticut since 1993.

He was elected to succeed Bishop

Arthur E. Walmsley, for whom he served as suffragan, or assistant, bishop for 12 years. Before that he was pastor of St. Mark's Church in Bridgeport.

``What a joyous ministry it has been,'' Coleridge wrote, thanking priests and lay people for being ``phenomenally caring, supportive, responsive and cooperative.''

The one-page letter was read in Episcopal churches Sunday.

``We will keep you informed every step of the way, from the selection of the Search Committee through the time I hand over the crozier to your new bishop,'' Coleridge said.

Coleridge declined to comment Monday. His wife, Euna, said he was reflecting on the future and would have something to say later.

She said his actual retirement date depended on when a successor is elected and installed but he hoped it would be before Dec. 31, 1999.

Euna Coleridge, who retired as a science teacher at Central High School in Bridgeport four years ago, said that after her husband retires, ``We have not decided what we are going to do. It's a matter of working through a lot of stuff.''

They live in Trumbull.

The search for a successor is an elaborate process. The diocese's Standing Committee, its governing body, is expected to select a search committee sometime this summer, said Karin Hamilton, spokeswoman for the diocese.

In the 1993 election of Coleridge, the search committee reviewed 3,400 questionnaires filled out by members of the diocese on what they expected from a new bishop. Fourteen regional meetings with clergy were then held to solicit their views.

More than 100 possible candidates from all over the country were reviewed by the committee and 40 of those agreed to allow their names to be formally considered. That list was trimmed to 20 and then to 10, each of whom received visits from the committee.

In the end five candidates were nominated officially and a sixth, Connecticut Suffragan Bishop Jeffery Rowthorn, ran an independent campaign that bested all the official nominees save Coleridge.

The election of a bishop is subject to approval by majorities of the standing committees and bishops in all of the dioceses.